Advertisement

Saturday Night Live's ISIS commercial parody ignites debate

A provocative Saturday Night Live skit about the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria's recruitment of Westerners (especially teenage girls) to fight abroad is causing fierce debate.

The commercial parody, which aired over the weekend, featured guest host Dakota Johnson, who stars in the film adaptation of erotic best-seller Fifty Shades of Grey, as a teenage girl who is saying goodbye to her father.

The audience is led to believe she's leaving for college, and her father is despondent yet understanding of his daughter's next step into adulthood. But then the character's true plan is revealed: "It's just ISIS, dad," Johnson's character says.

Further in the skit, cast member Taran Killam, who plays Johnson's father, tells the ISIS recruiter to "take good care" of his daughter, to which the ISIS member replies: "Death to America!"

Media columnists had lots to say about the skit – pro and con. And it was a hot topic on social media, where some called it "humorous" and others "horrible."

SNL is no stranger to igniting debate with its sketches — something that Killam clearly supports:

"Proud of this. Freedom to mock is our greatest weapon. Thanks to the writers who asked not to be mentioned by name," Killamsaid on Twitter.

The skit, which was no longer available on YouTube in Canada Monday evening, ran on the heels of two major international stories involving Westerners travelling to the Middle East to join ISIS, including three British schoolgirls and three men from the U.S., who were arrested on charges of plotting to travel to Syria to join ISIS and wage war against the U.S.